Today’s Reflection
Gospel: John 11:45-56
April 9, 2022 | Saturday

Today’s Gospel

Many of the Jews who had come with Mary believed in Jesus when they saw what he did; but some went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees called together the Council.

They said, “What are we to do? For this man keeps on performing many miraculous signs. If we let him go on like this, all the people will believe in him and, as a result of this, the Romans will come and destroy our Holy Place and our nation.”

Then one of them, Caiaphas, who was High Priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! It is better to have one man die for the people than to let the whole nation be destroyed.”

In saying this Caiaphas did not speak for himself, but being High Priest that year, he foretold like a prophet that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also would die in order to gather into one the scattered children of God. So, from that day on, they were determined to kill him.

Because of this, Jesus no longer moved about freely among the Jews. He withdrew instead to the country near the wilderness, and stayed with his disciples in a town called Ephraim.

The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and people from everywhere were coming to Jerusalem to purify themselves before the Passover. They looked for Jesus and, as they stood in the temple, they talked with one another, “What do you think? Will he come to the festival?” Meanwhile the chief priests and the elders had given orders that anyone who knew where he was should let them know, so that they could arrest him.

Today’s Reflection:

The Passover was one of the celebrations during the time of Jesus that compelled Jews who were scattered throughout the nations to gather in Jerusalem to participate in religious activity. The Gospel’s setting anticipated this feast and Jewish elders waited if Jesus would also come and participate. Indeed, it has been the plan of God to ultimately fulfill during this feast, his prophecy in the first reading to gather Israel among the nations. However, on that appointed hour, Israel shall be gathered and liberated from their sins, no longer by the symbolic offering of a lamb in the then-standing temple. It shall be through the offering of the One True Temple and Lamb of God – Jesus Christ – in Calvary. This scene shall then mark the most important event in mankind’s history, when God’s people pass over from sin and death to eternal life. /Vulnerasti, 2022